Bill Shore, in his compelling book, Revolution of the Heart wrote:  No one wears ribbons on behalf of the children who live in poverty. The child trapped in a well for a week could count on Dan Rather telling the world about her condition each evening. Rescue workers and experts would be flown in from around the country. Neighbors could be relied up to nurture and sustain the family. Journalists would do special reports on how children get trapped in wells and what can be done to prevent these accidents. Banks, hospitals, local businesses, and other community institutions would respond with funds and equipment. The necessary financial support would be found even though it was not budgeted for in advance.

‘If that child could be saved, she would be saved — because our country has both the resources and the will to save her. But a child trapped in poverty — not for a week, but for a lifetime —enjoys no such outcome. Even if she were the same child that had been stuck in the well. Thirty feed underground, that child is the most visible child in the United States. In plain view on a front stoop in Harlem, that child is invisible. Our nation has the resources necessary to save her. But it does not have the will.

Share Our Strength^® is a national nonprofit that is ending childhood hunger in America founded by Bill Shore.

Who Cares?

It is almost impossible to attempt to change a firmly held opinion or belief, and essentially a waste of time and energy to try. Strident advocacy can be compared with an untended garden hose that produces a torrent without much sense of direction.

It is good to talk to yourself by speaking to those who agree with you.  Such dialog produces a satisfying sense of righteousness.

The most rewarding constituency is one who doesn’t care one way or another about …whatever. So you won’t persuade a vegan to eat a lamb chop or talk a meat lover into salivating over the prospect of a tofu sandwich, but you may be able to issue forth a clarion call for action if your argument is presented calmly, rationally, unemotionally and backed up with statistics and quotes from reliable sources. The sequence of the theseis involves stating the problem, descibing what will happen if nothing is done, persuasively suggesting a solution and listing specific actions to take…now.

I’m loving it.

It is fascinating to remember so many names from the near past: Maude Chez Elle, Jim Nassikas from the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco, Ann Seranne the food editor from Gourmet and so many other who gather together in our collective memory.

How fortunate I am. I will be meeting the for lunch today. He is coming to the CIA to give a talk at 3 P.M. I and the students from my Professional Food Writing Class have reserved seats as a big crowd is expected.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

The sad truth is there is no way to fight this perception.

It’s rubbish, of course, because it is not the real food that is the issue, but the memory of it that is seen through rose-colored glasses. It is the remembrance of that long-lost yellow plate with a chip on the edge and painted with the daisy, on which the lasagna was served, and the way the sunlight fell across the kitchen table.

As they say, memories are made of this and there ain’t no way to fight ‘em.

Not incidentally, in the brain, the center for memory is anatomically close to the center for interpreting smell and taste.

Samplers were not only for decoration; they were used to teach children reading, writing and arithmetic.  Sewing was no hobby in those early days but a necessity. All the clothes had to be made at home. Mothers and grandmothers made quilts and rugs to keep themselves warm with no inkling they were creating art.

Men and women have always been artisans, using whatever materials they had at hand; metal and wood, tin and pewter, rags and bones, clay and scraps of cloth.  Neither fancy nor frivolous, their work is filled with the exuberance of experimentation. It may be described as naive, but its very innocence is the essence of its charm.  Small wonder, then, that these many objects, these heirlooms, have endured and become part of our heritage.

This tradition continues today. A new handmade gift is cherished every bit as much as an heirloom. Like the work of those who came before us, we can get by with little or no formal training.

Courtesy of theheritagecook.com

The important thing is to continue to create our own unique gifts to share with those who will appreciate them.

To express your love for a friend, you could give a basket of heirloom tomatoes or a collection of your favorite recipes tied with a bow (or a bottle of nicely crafted bottle of gin!).

ICDT! (I Can Do That!)

Fred Ferretti reports in Food Arts magazine that Jae Lee, a native of South Korea, created a job for himself and his increasing number of American employees: he makes multiple million chopsticks for export to China, Japan and other far Eastern countries.

Everybody has to eat, but the methods that people all over the world use to get their food from the plate to mouth vary.  Figures from the Japanese Restaurant Association divide the world’s population into four categories:

• 1.2 billion people eat with chopsticks.
• 1.5 billion eat with fork, knife and spoon.
• 350 million eat with a knife and their hands.
• 250 million eat with their hands only.

In fast food restaurants plastic utensils are optional for pizza.

The Brie

The Brie group is populated with exuberant folk who live to eat something new. These are the explorers, who flock to elBulli, The French Laundry, Alinea and The Fat Duck. Their heroes are Ferran Adria, Thomas Keller, Grant Achatz and Heston Blumenthal.

These are the Cirque du Soleil of chefs: high fliers who soar to new heights on bended twigs and clouds of dry ice while Iron Chefs and their challengers continue to astonish and delight their followers as they exhibit their own brand of jaw-dropping daring and culinary expertise.

The Brie group hurries to every new restaurant, daring to savor novel tastes, marveling at the dazzling décor and freedom of choices. They are having a glorious time, shouting applause and encouragement for the chefs and spurring them on to new creations to delight their fans. The cooks are like a jam of jazz musicians, playing set after set, variation after variation, spurring each other on with flair and imagination.

As Bobby Flay observed: “In the end, your creativity — perhaps even your outrageousness — will determine the final result.”

A characteristic of the Bran brigade is their tendency to treat themselves as outpatients. They study food labels as though they are prescriptions for life or death. Members of this group concern themselves with calories, cholesterol, and fat and have lately become obsessed with gluten.

The Brans medicate themselves with food supplements, rigorous exercise regimes and diets of denial. They fret about fluorides in the water and salt, (except sea salt), in the soup. They do not lie in the sun.

Many Brans are united in their devotion to slow (food). They sing rousing choruses of Amen’s to the principals of sustainability, seasonality and farmer’s markets. They believe we should treat animals humanely so they can eat them. Their hero is Saint Alice.

The Barbecue brotherhood are an entirely difference kettle of fish. They are happiest when dressed in warm clothing, armed and fortified with spirited drinks. They like to hunt and kill their own food: doves, ducks and dears.

The Barbecues can be found striding around their contemporary backyard version of an ancient campfire, carrying a beer and a spear, while their mates scurry about gathering all the sides and washing the dishes. The Barbecues regard a large steak with the same near reverential awe as the flag and the constitution. To those with whom they disagree, they offer tea — and sympathy. Their hero is not the Jolly Great Giant.

It is interesting to discover all three of these disparate approaches to dining result in an almost identical lifespan of three score years and ten (or twenty if you are an actuarian totting up future social security benefits.)

A lifetime if you are watching the political parties — party.

We should remember that funerals are for the living.  The most honored survivors walk slowly and mourn from a lectern.  Grieving friends who are held in high esteem are invited to shoulder the casket from outdoors to indoors and back out again.

Others simply sob.

All this heavy-duty emotion is sure to build up a hearty appetite.

Brunch for the Bereaved is a niche market that is assured of growth as the population ages and the inevitable becomes, well, unavoidable.

Restaurants catering to mourners should specialize in tasteful advertising and appropriate interior design.

Salad of warm foie gras and harigots verts

In the early 70’s, we transformed French chef Jean Troisgros’s salad of warm foie gras, haricots verts and warm vinaigrette into bologna, frozen string beans and thousand island dressing.

By the late ’80s, we converted the same idea into duck carpaccio, radiccio and blueberry vinegar, and by the ’90s became enraptured with skinless, boneless free range, organic chicken breast with mache and citrus infused olive oil.

Yesterday molecular gastronomy took center stage with a morsel of caramelized chicken topped with a rose foam, garnished with five sturgeon eggs, topped with a tiny shrimp pirouetting on a single, sublime pea… served in a demitasse spoon.

Slowly we climb the steps to ultimate gastronomy before ascending to that great banquette in the sky.

Chef Shoop is part of a team of oncologists, naturopathic doctors, nutritionists, mind-body specialists and therapists that use a whole-person approach to ensure optimal nutrition for their patients. This approach is based on the fact that cancer does not affect one part of the body but rather the body as a whole — as well as all aspects of patients’ lives.  He says: “Our purpose is so wonderful and beautiful…really it’s about two Ls — loving and listening.”

Note: Personal and private chefs may specialize in a specific health area, for example preparing gluten free meals or tasty food for those living healthily with diabetes.  Even folk yearning to shed a couple of pounds can be helped to slimness with the aid of a personal chef.  Do you remember how much weight Oprah lost? And her cook’s cookbook sold literally millions of copies.n